Guatemala court suspends left-wing party’s exclusion from presidential elections – Jovem Pan

Guatemalan presidential candidate of the Movimiento Semilla party, Bernardo Arevalo, shows his tattooed finger after voting in Guatemala City

highest court in Guatemala On Thursday, the 13th, she suspended the court order that disqualified Simela’s party, from the Social Democratic candidate Bernardo Arevalo, preventing him from contesting the second round of the elections. Presidential elections in August. Temporary protection was granted to Arevalo, the organization said, by a Constitutional Court decision, which overturned a measure approved by Judge Freddy Orellana on Wednesday that placed Similla’s second-round candidate’s participation under scrutiny. Soon after the controversial ruling, according to which irregularities were found in the establishment of the party, the candidates for the second round were approved by the Supreme Court for Elections (TSE), adding to the uncertainty. The ruling also sparked demonstrations in Guatemala and criticism from the government wefrom European UnionAnd Catholic Church he is from Chile. In addition to Semilla’s appeal against Judge Orellana’s decision, TSE filed another appeal for the same purpose. Arevalo announced that he would criminally indict Public Prosecutor Rafael Kuroshichi, who requested that his party be disqualified.

For her part, candidate Sandra Torres announced the suspension of her election campaign due to the crisis, to compete on an equal footing with Arevalo, after asking President Alejandro Giamatti to speak out, in light of the “difficult situation” in the country. Even before the elections, experts, activists, and Arevalo himself warned that the democratic system was navigating turbulent waters in Guatemala, due to political control of the judiciary, prosecutions against journalists, disqualification of presidential candidates, and prosecution of prosecutors who fought corruption. .

* With information from AFP